


Say What You Will.

by rain_sleet_snow



Series: My Family (And Other Dinosaurs) [29]
Category: Primeval
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-02-01
Updated: 2009-02-01
Packaged: 2018-03-10 00:14:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3269567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_sleet_snow/pseuds/rain_sleet_snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Juliet is nobody’s china doll.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Say What You Will.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Luka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luka/gifts).



> For Luka, in thanks for the Ginormous Beta. *squishes* As I should remember to mention more often, Lyle belongs to Fred, and Fred was also kind enough to check this for lunacy. :)
> 
> I’m hell on heels, say what you will, but I done made the devil a deal; he made me pretty, he made me smart, and I’m gonna break me a million hearts. – Hell on Heels, The Pistol Annies

            Lyle eyed the brief byplay going on by the school auditorium’s ‘stage door’ – the door to the area where the dancers and actors in the school play had changed into their costumes, done their make-up and waited for their cues. He nudged Simon Price in the ribs. “That’s going to be a problem, isn’t it?”

 

            Simon almost dropped his Blackberry, but hurriedly grabbed at it and twisted to see what Lyle was looking at. “What, Juliet and -?”

 

            “Yeah,” Lyle said. He felt safe in confirming Simon’s guess, because Liz was currently in the ladies’ loo and Lester was quietly taking a work call just outside.

 

            The annual school play was a big production; most of the school years were somehow involved, the drama teachers got a budget that made their eyes light up, and all proceeds went to charity. Liz had done a lot of set work, lifting and carrying and organising people (for which read shouting at them). Juliet, who no longer took part in extracurricular activities that weren’t ballet and who had dropped a GCSE in order to spend even more time on her ballet, hadn’t disdained to take a small but crucial dance part in it. She was easily the best dancer in the school, and even Lyle – who wasn’t keen on ballet – had noticed that she had real stage presence, and made her role look easy.

 

            She was also standing by the stage door, smiling sweetly and sharply as she received the advances of a tall, broadly-built boy leaning right into her personal space.  

 

            “Well,” Simon said, slowly. “What kind of problem do you mean?”

 

            “I mean Liz is going to come back from the bogs and defend her girlfriend’s honour.”

 

            “Liz could take him in a fight,” Simon said, sizing up Juliet’s suitor with a practised eye. Lyle wondered how much stock to put in that particular statement: he’d seen Lacey passing on a little worldly wisdom to Liz, taught her a few things himself just for fun, and knew she once had a reputation as the school fighter, but Simon’s unshakable faith in Liz’s abilities probably not entirely justified. “But she isn’t going to have to.”

 

            Lyle maintained a dubious silence, watching Juliet flirt. She hadn’t yet scrubbed off her stage makeup or taken down her hair, tied up tight in a high bun ringed with pins headed with plastic pearls, but she had changed into casual clothes: faded skinny jeans, flat pumps, and an oversized jumper of Liz’s. She curled her fingers around the strap of her floral book-bag and tipped her chin so that she was looking up at the boy through her lashes.

 

            “Just watch,” Simon said, grinning devilishly. “Juliet’s always been bloody gorgeous. But thing is, she’s also bloody terrifying, and she didn’t learn that from Liz… Here we go.”

 

            Lyle gave Simon a raised eyebrow, and looked back just in time to see Juliet step a little closer to her suitor, lay a deceptively delicate-looking hand on his chest, and stand on her tip-toes as if to murmur a secret. Smugness in every line of his body, the boy leaned down, and then suddenly tensed. Juliet’s hand curled tight in his hoodie and she yanked him closer, whispering something in his ear without dropping the sweet smile. Then she let him go, and he recoiled a step, shaken. She tilted her head to one side, batted her eyelashes, and spoke again. The boy nodded, pale and shaken, and backed away. Juliet twinkled her fingers at him in a parody of a cute little wave, and turned unhurriedly to talk to one of her fellow dancers as he fled.

 

            “There,” Simon said, satisfaction in his voice. “See?”

 

            “Bloody hell,” Lyle said. He had always had a healthy respect for Juliet’s ruthlessness. He had never seen her dispose of unwanted attention before, though. Every time he’d seen Liz and Juliet interact with people their own age and boys had made themselves known, Juliet had simply slid a little closer to Liz, and Liz had curled a possessive hand around her waist and given the boys the kind of flat look that made them either square off for a fight (which Liz usually laughed at) or drop their pursuit. Hilariously, when girls hit on Liz, she invariably failed to notice.

 

            “I keep telling Juliet not to play with her food before she eats it,” Liz remarked, appearing from nowhere, but the grin on her face belied her words. “Who was it, the Jacobs kid?”

 

            “Yeah,” Simon said. “Don’t waste your time on him.”

 

            “Cousin of Liam’s, isn’t he?”

 

            Simon nodded. “Liam was going to have a word with him, but I reckon that’s just been…”

 

            “…made redundant,” Liz completed, and nodded with satisfaction. She waved at Juliet, whose eyes lit up as she spotted her, and Juliet began to weave through the crowd towards them.

 

            “Your girlfriend is scary,” Lyle said.

 

            “Absolutely fucking terrifying,” Liz said warmly, and got a glare from one of her teachers. “Sorry, Miss Vandermeer.”

 

            Miss Vandermeer rolled her eyes eloquently, indicating just how much stock she put in that apology, and slid into the crowd like a small shark into a school of fish.  Simon hissed between his teeth, and Liz gave him a laughing look.

 

            Juliet arrived in front of them, and stepped straight into Liz’s arms. Liz kissed the top of her head and hugged her unselfconsciously. “You were awesome.”

 

            Juliet beamed. “Thanks. Hey, Jon. Enjoy the show?”

 

            “We all did,” Simon said – modestly, given that he’d written a significant chunk of the script. “Especially the bit where you made David Jacobs think you were going to castrate him with a hairpin.”

 

            “Oh, that?”

 

            “Yeah,” Liz said, and grinned at her girlfriend. “Like I said, Ju, you really shouldn’t play with your food before you eat it.”

 

            Juliet grinned back at her. “All I have to work with is the cutlery I was born with,” she protested, extending the metaphor to the point of cruelty. “And it came with the serrated edges.”

 

            “This is the bit where you thank God she doesn’t turn those edges on us,” Simon informed Lyle, as Liz and Juliet caught each other’s eye and burst out laughing.

 

            Lyle grinned and shook his head. Stringer hadn’t complained, exactly, but he’d certainly given the impression that Emily Sayers’ daughter was deliberately intimidating – but as far as Lyle was concerned, he didn’t know the half of it.    


End file.
